Settlement reached in Haiti PM defamation case

Associated PressTuesday, October 29, 2013

MIAMI — Haiti's prime minister has reached a settlement in his defamation case against a Haitian-American journalist.

Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and his former business partner originally sued Leo Joseph in September 2012 over his reporting in the New York-based Haiti-Observateur. They claimed Joseph knew his reporting about the Haitian government's acquisition of a telecommunications company included false and defamatory statements about Lamothe and Patrice Baker.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John O'Sullivan signed an order settling and closing the case Monday.

An attorney for Lamothe said Tuesday the settlement requires Joseph to publish a statement from a source he cited in his reporting. Bertrand Madsen says the source confirms that Joseph's reporting was false.

Joseph's attorney says the statement comes from "a person who has told multiple versions of a single story."